Social Media is the 500 lb gorilla in the room that nobody knows what to do with. Ignore it, feed it, befriend it, fear it, or understand it. Ultimately they will embrace it and accept it, and not worry about the ROI. Business is about connecting with people and people drive business and referrals. – Web Success Team

Inc. 500 CEOs Use Social Media for Business

By Tamara Schweitzer

A new study shows that the use of social media is particularly prevalent among Inc. 500 companies and provides new insight on the role social media plays in running a business.

For the third consecutive year, the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, has conducted a study on social media usage among Inc. 500 companies. The 2009 results confirm the upward trend of social media adoption rates among some of the fastest growing private companies, and provide a useful comparison of social media trends from 2007 on.

This year’s study, which was conducted by researchers Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson, included 148 of the 2009 Inc. 500 companies. As with the past two years, respondents were asked about their usage and familiarity with six types of social media tools, including blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, message boards, and wikis. In the past year, social media usage by the Inc. 500 has grown, with 91 percent of companies reporting that they use at least one social media tool, compared to 77 percent in the 2008 survey. And, of the six social media categories, the one that continues to be the most familiar to Inc. 500 companies is social networking, with 75 percent saying that they are “very familiar with it.” Read more

People are people not objects. Social media is about relationship building and trust in whose delivering the information. Be sincere and helpful, be active and participate, give more than you get and you will develop a following and be in a better position to benefit from others needs. – Web Success Team

How NOT to network in LinkedIn

We wrote here about LinkedIn’s groups, and how to network through them. An associate of mine told me that it didn’t work for him. When I asked him why, I understood his that he came in too strong by putting a link immediately after joining. This was considered spamming, and he paid the price. Here’s a lesson for all of us.

Joining a LinkedIn group gives you the opportunity to communicate with other members of the group and also to post your content there. My associate was thrilled to find another place to put links to his site.

While this can indeed be a nice platform for receiving quality traffic, from a well targeted group of professionals, this approach doesn’t always satisfy the group administrators. Read more

There is confusion between traditional advertising agency and PR models as to who should handle social media (the new medias). They both bring different skill sets to the table. This should not deter clients or agencies from the bigger picture: social media can compliment your existing ad campaign.

The problem is that we are allowing all this new technology to complicate matters even when it is really quite simple in my opinion.

Branding and advertising will always be necessary whether you use either a Facebook fan page, a blog or simply rely on traditional medias to enhance your brand.

An advertising agency should have no problem embracing new medias as another tool or an enhancement to what is already in existence.

Aren’t marketing and advertising all about reach and frequency anyway? So the answer to the question “Who is in charge of social media?” is… whoever can use it more effectively. – Janette Speyer –WST. Read more

Who’s in Charge of Social Media?

That’s led some agencies to reorient the type of accounts they pursue. Deep Focus, a digital shop, was primarily an online promotions agency that worked heavily in the entertainment industry. Its social media chops is leading it in a different direction, according to Schafer, as about eight clients are using it as an “engagement agency.” It recently was put on Microsoft’s roster, for instance, to serve as social media agency for Bing.

“Clients are waking up to the fact that either their lead traditional agency doesn’t get social media or gets [it] enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be effective,” said Schafer. “They know it’s important, but that’s not where they’ll make their money.”

That’s led Deep Focus into competition with upstart social media consulting firms. “There’s a hodgepodge of firms who can deliver elements, but … most are really new, young and underdeveloped,” he said.

EVB finds its competitive set shifting as it uses social media to provide the “pixie dust” that gets people talking about a brand. What often happens, said CEO Daniel Stein, is clients know they want to do something in social media, but aren’t sure what. That puts the shop in a different position in pitches like the one for VSP. “The client doesn’t even know who to call with some of this stuff,” he said. “You used to know what the [competition] would bring in. Now you have no idea.”

All too often we get comfortable in our jobs or companies doing what we do best. But periodically these good habits need to be re-examined. In recessionary times you need to constantly reinvent yourself and try new avenues to increase your market share or profitability.

Times are a-changing. The Internet is a dynamic environment and you need to become more active in social media, online networking groups, and good old fashion hand pressing. It’s also a good idea to reassess your website by freshening it up with new content, promotions and calls to action.

Another excellent way to reach out is to actively maintain a blog and blog at least once a week on topical issues of interest for your potential customers. – Bob Speyer, Web Success Team.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ — Following a trying period with little-to-no-growth and industry layoffs and pay cuts, legal professionals are turning to proven business development efforts to freshen their brands and generate business.

Working with law firms to help them dig out of this smoking crater, Moire Marketing Partners, a strategic branding and communications agency specializing in professional services firms, is offering some tips on how firms can position themselves for growth in the post-recession economy:

Incorporate social media into your business development efforts. Your clients, prospects and their suppliers are using it; you should strategically use it too. Leverage tools including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to connect with prospective clients and other professionals to build your network and demonstrate your expertise.

Be a brand ambassador. Remember, you are the face of your company’s brand. Use your interactions to communicate your firm’s brand promise and support that continuously in your efforts.

Network. Relationships matter. Social media is a great way to start a conversation with a client or prospect – but don’t let it stop there. Offer to meet new and old colleagues at an upcoming industry or bar association meeting, civic event, non-profit activity or social mixer – or host your own hospitality function at your firm.

Seize the podium. Apply to be a speaker at upcoming events. If you aren’t accepted, attend anyway to get a better handle on what topics are creating buzz.

Learn from other professionals. Invest in consultants to sharpen your brand. An outside perspective can help you assess the effectiveness of your business development efforts and offer insight into what strategies would work best for your personality type.

Be active in your home and business communities. Dust off those memberships in the local chamber of commerce and non-profit organization. Get involved in industry related activities and slowly increase your profile. Read more

“I believe that digital advertising is just another tool in the general media world. The economic downturn and slashed budgets have increased the need to think out of the box. One the benefits of digital media is that you can measure analytics in real time.
I also believe that advertising will become more personalized as we delve into Social Media. But as the Internet world becomes saturated with constant messages, we will have to go back to the basics: Good creative!” – WST

Here’s one of the things we do at Forrester Research: we interview as many marketers as we can about their plans, identify trends and project future likely conditions, and then we put together some numbers to make a projection. If you’ve ever seen a Forrester projection, it comes from a process like this.

This means that inside every projection is an idea or ten about the future. Those ideas can be powerful, and they come from research with marketers and consumers.

In this recession, marketers have learned that interactive marketing is more effective, and advertising less effective, per dollar spent. While budgets for online have decreased, they decreased less than other budgets. Six out of ten marketers we surveyed agreed with the statement “we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing.” Only 7% said “we have no plans to increase our marketing budget.”

Unlike the last recession, digital marketing is no longer experimental. Now it looks more like advertising is inefficient, relative to digital. More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that effectiveness of direct mail, TV, magazines, outdoor, newspapers, and radio would stay the same or decrease within three years. In contrast, well over 70% expected the effectiveness of channels like created social media, online video, and mobile marketing to increase. Read More.

Women have always been known to be community-oriented, which is why it’s no surprise that women more frequently use social networks. This study details how women use social media and what they look at and are looking for. Read on to find out how you can tune your marketing strategy to appeal to this niche. – WST

By: Julie Kent

SheSpeaks.com conducted a great survey of women’s online and computer habits, and published the results in a comprehensive 65-page document. It’s a fascinating study that looks mainly at women’s social habits online, and most definitely has implications for online marketing. Looking at the results of this study can help you tailor your marketing campaigns to effectively, rather than ineffectively, reach out to women.

Shopping & Social

Not surprisingly, the top activity for women online is shopping. The third most popular activity is social networking, which is also not a surprise given the stereotype that women just love to talk. The fact that both of these activities are very popular with women means that there is also some cross-over issues to consider. If women like to shop online, they’re likely to talk about that online and there are probably certain kinds of marketing tactics that will work better with them.

One of the first very obvious things that this study shows is that women of all ages are very active in social networks. Younger women are more active and have more contacts than older women, but a sizeable number of 40+ are taking advantage of social networking, and in some cases are more engaged than their younger peers.

Making up half the world’s population, “women” is a pretty large group. Within that group, then, you’d expect some different patterns of behavior to emerge. The biggest differences can be seen in different age groups – under 30’s and 40-somethings on up. With most 30 and unders having grown up with computers, it’s not surprising.

Key Findings of the Study

Here are some of the key findings for the two groups:

Younger women:

* Are more likely to say “connect with others” as top online activity (73%), compared to 40+ women (31%).
* Are more likey to look at consumer generated content (28%) than 40+ (10%).
* Are more likely to have profiles. 86% of 30 & under have profiles.
* Facebook and MySpace are most popular (78% and 79%)
* LinkedIn is more popular with high earners (41% for HHI $120K+ vs. 17% overall)

Older women are:

* 45% of 40+ have profiles.
* More active than younger women on Classmates (42% vs 19% for <30s).
* Facebook and MySpace are most popular (65% and 63%)
* LinkedIn is more popular with high earners (41% for HHI $120K+ vs. 17% overall)

None of those findings are really all that earth-shattering. Perhaps most surprising, however, is the high numbers of older women (40+) that are using social networks. It appears that while a majority of women join these networks to “connect” or “reconnect” (61% and 66%), there are also other factors at play. Younger women are most likely to join connect, reconnect, and share photos. A high proportion of older women, on the otherhand, join to keep an eye on their kids’ online activites, especially those with children ages 13 to 17.

Women aren’t just signing up and forgetting about their profiles and connections either. Half of all women log into social networks everyday. Two-thirds of under 30’s log-in daily, and 41% of 40+ log-in daily.

So what do Women do on Social Networks?

When you get a bunch of women together, who most enjoy shopping online and talking, what exactly do they talk about? 62% of all women talk about products, and 71% of those with children ages 13 to 17 talk about products. What kind of products do they talk about? The most talked about category of products on social networks by women is beauty products. After that food/restaurants and movies/entertainment were also popular, especially amongst younger women.

How do women feel about ads?

Women generally do not have good feelings about ads. 26% said they actively ignore ads, and another 20% said they are annoyed by ads. A few notice interesting ads once in awhile, but only about 2% ever actually click on an ad.

It’s true, older generations are logging on to Facebook and signing up. Although, the 55 and over group isn’t as active as the younger groups, they are starting to recognize the value of social media and marketing. When I first started online marketing, I was the old guy. Now I see my generation recognizing the value of the Internet and how effective it can be for driving traffic and sales to businesses. It starts with social media. – WST

By: Glenn Gabe

Facebook is estimated to have 70.2 million unique visitors per month in the United States according to comScore. Social networking is booming, everyone is friending, following, tweeting, tagging, and grandma and grandpa are getting involved too. Wait a minute, did I just say grandma and grandpa? That’s what some recent Facebook research has shown. It seems the fastest growing demographic on the social networking giant is women 55 and older. That segment grew by 175% in February 2009, while men 55 and older grew by 137%.

I was definitely excited to see the data. I’m a big believer in social networking and love to see people in that age group join a site like Facebook. That said, reality set in a few days later. I ended up speaking with someone 66 years old who needed my assistance with their email account. Like many of you reading this post, I usually end up being the point person for technology-related questions for friends and family. I had an interesting few minutes on a phone call with her. Here’s a quick transcript:

Her: I can’t seem to find some emails I’ve written.
Me: Did you check your sent items?
Her: I’m in my email already. Where are my sent items?
Me: It’s the folder labeled “Sent Items” in Microsoft Outlook.
Her: I don’t think I’m using Outlook…
Me: What are you using to check your email?
Her: The e with a circle around it (AKA: Internet Explorer)
Me: OK, so it’s web-based mail.
Her: No, it’s on my computer.
Me: Yes, but you are accessing your email on the web. I can help you. What’s your email address so I can send you some instructions?
Her: I’m not sure, hold on.
Me: Jumping off roof now. 🙂

That conversation reminded me that not everyone is tech savvy. We come with computer chips built into our brains. Our kids instinctively know how to text and have built in wi-fi. But, we also grew up using computers on a regular basis. People that are 55 and older didn’t… We were typically the ones introducing computers and explaining how to use them. Needless to say, there’s a big difference between the various age groups and how they utilize new technology.

My 3 Degrees of 55 and Older

After the phone call, I started thinking about people 55 and older and the data I saw about Facebook. I’ll be honest, I started having doubts that many people 55 and older are jamming on Facebook, tagging photos, using apps, providing status updates, and grabbing their vanity URL’s. So, why was I skeptical? My parents are in that age group, and all of their friends. My in-laws are in that age group, and all of their friends. In addition, all of my friends’ parents are in that age group, so on and so forth. So, I like to think I have a pretty good feel for that demographic, based on interactions I’ve had with them over the past few years.

They Are Signing Up, But Not Coming Back…

The initial data I read showed that people 55 and older was a fast growing segment for Facebook (with women over 55 being the fastest growing). But, recent data revealed that although they were signing up, they were not returning to Facebook. Unfortunately, that did make a lot of sense to me. I can only imagine someone 65 years old hearing about Facebook from their children or grandchildren, signing up, and looking at their blank profile thinking, “What the heck is this??”

Getting My Own Data

Although reading all of this data about people 55 and older was great, it wasn’t sufficient for me. I wanted to know more. So I decided to collect some of my own data! I reached out to my network of friends and family with a quick Facebook questionnaire. I came up with five simple questions to try and understand how people 55 and older were using Facebook. I sent an email to my network and waited patiently for the data to come in. It didn’t take long to start receiving responses. Some of the emails cracked me up, others surprised me, and most reinforced what I thought. Here are the five questions I sent out:

1. Are you currently on Facebook?
2. If yes, what do you use it for?
3. How often do you visit Facebook per day, week, and month?
4. Do you enjoy Facebook? Why or why not?
5. Do you plan to join other social networks like Facebook in the near future (over the next 6 months to year?)

I ended up receiving 57 responses from people 55 and older.

A quick disclaimer before I reveal the data. This is obviously not a scientific study, nor was it meant to be. I just wanted to receive feedback from a trusted group of people that were 55 and older to see if and how they use Facebook. Let’s see what they had to say.

Lots of No’s, But There is Hope

As I started receiving responses, I saw a quick trend. NO. That’s the overwhelming response I received to question one (Are you currently on Facebook?) It ends up that 80% of the respondents were not on Facebook. When someone did choose to elaborate, I received some funny responses. For example, I found out about one man who isn’t on Facebook and also refuses to upgrade to broadband. I think the exact quote was, “Dial-up is fast enough!” I laughed out loud and couldn’t help but think that his response was something right out of an episode of Seinfeld. 🙂 Another comment that cracked me up was, “I think I was there once.” Wow, Facebook made such a big impression on her that she didn’t even know if she was on the site! Although I was hoping to see more people from this group on Facebook, I had a feeling this would be the case. Then I opened a few emails that gave me hope…

Wait, Facebook Can Be Helpful!

Sprinkled in with the no’s were some great responses supporting Facebook. These enthusiastic responses made me think there is hope. The first one that struck me was from a friend’s mother-in-law. Her enthusiasm about Facebook jumped off the page. Literally, if she could friend me, tag my photo, challenge me to a trivia game, and become a fan of my Facebook page, I think she would. She explained how much she loves Facebook, how she keeps up with her children and grandchildren, and loves seeing everyone’s status updates, photos, video, etc. She logs in a few times per day. Yes, she was the exception, but she got it (big time).

After reading her story, I received a few more no’s and then another great response came in. This time from a friend’s father, who logs in a few times per week to see what his kids are doing, he searches for people he went to college with, connected with some of them online and offline, etc. It was another great example of someone using Facebook in smart ways. He seemed to really like it.

Understanding user-generated content and how it can both help and hurt you is a great asset to your business. Social media is a method of connecting with people, meaning providing your own user-generated content to communicate interest, link content and even share business ideas. This article explains the types of risks involved as well as how to protect yourself against negative content. This is important for every successful business online. – WST

By: Jeremy Gislason

User-generated content (or “Participatory Media” as some call it) can be a great way to boost the value of your website, and the traffic that’s driven to it. Many website owners have already found that developing online communities greatly increases their financial bottom lines. Sometimes, as has been the case with YouTube, user-generated content can even be a great business model in itself.

But user-generated content can also be a great source of risk and exposure. Again, there’s probably no better example of this than YouTube. YouTube was sued by the Viacom studio in 2007 for $1 billion in damages, for allegedly distributing Viacom’s copyrighted materials without permission.

If you understand the risks associated with user-generated content, you can take steps to reduce your exposure and protect your online assets, while at the same time increasing the value of your website.

What is User-Generated Content?

User-generated content is a broad term that includes any material that a website user posts on the website for others to see. This can include not only blog comments, but also pictures, videos, articles, or anything else that a user might post in a forum or bulletin board section of your website, or as part of their own personal profile on the website.

What are the Risks with User-Generated Content, and How Can I Address Them?

There are a number of legal issues that you will need to become familiar with if you permit or promote user-generated content on your website.

a. Intellectual property infringement. There are two primary types of intellectual property infringement issues that you should be aware of. The first is copyright infringement. Key elements of liability include knowledge of the infringing activity, inducing or contributing the improper conduct, and attaining a direct financial benefit in the infringing activity when you have the ability to supervise the direct infringer.

Copyright holders generally try to enforce their rights by means of “takedown notices” that are sent in accordance with the requirements a particular Federal law (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act). You’ll have to decide what position to take once you receive takedown notices. Do you evaluate each and respond notice as you feel appropriate? Or do you simply honor all takedown notices immediately? It’s a balance between avoiding legal risk of a lawsuit by those who claim to hold a copyright to the material that someone else posted, versus possibly alienating your users if you aren’t giving any consideration to their “fair use” rights in that content.

Trademark law prevents the use of trademarks of others in a manner that creates a likelihood of confusion about the source of goods or services or in a manner that dilutes the value of the trademark. User-generated content sometimes falls afoul of trademark law.

b. Defamation. You should also be aware that there is potential liability for allowing users to post defamatory statements about others on your website. There is a Federal law (The Communications Decency Act) which can provide some protection against defamation claims based on what your users do on your website, but the scope of the protection is still somewhat uncertain, so you should not ignore the possibility of claims against you based on user generated content.

c. Obscenity and Child Pornography. The Federal laws that provide protections to website owners generally exclude protections for obscene materials that appear on such websites, even if the materials are posted by users themselves.

How Can I Reduce My Risks?

One common technique for a website operator to reduce their risks of legal liability for user generated content is to not actively monitor the user activities on the website. While this may seem counter-intuitive, the relevant Federal laws provide a greater degree of protection (through a so-called “safe harbor”) for passive web services that do not actively manage or supervise user content.

It’s true, women make up 85% of the purchase decisions in the U.S. This information is key to any and every marketer. With Mother’s Day gone and Father’s Day on the rise, perhaps it’s time to pay attention to what women are doing on the web. – WST

Women keep their personal lives and business lives very separate when it comes to social media, according to the 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage, and Compass Partners. While women consider blogs great sources of information, especially regarding purchases, the vast majority of women use social networks solely for keeping in touch with family and friends.

Over half (55%) of the women surveyed in said they participate in some kind of blog activity (publishing, posting comments, reading), and 53% use social networks.

But here’s the kicker: Women use social networks in the purest sense only; 75% use them to keep in touch with friends and family, and not so much as information sources or for making purchase decisions. That’s a major insight considering this is the half of population making 85% of purchase decisions in the US.

In contrast, women rely more on blogs for the business of life, and are twice as likely to use blogs than social networks as an information source (64%), for advice and recommendations (43%), and opinion sharing (55%). Women are 50% more likely to use social networks merely as a means of keeping in touch.

A third of those participating in social networks are loyal to just one and do no other social media activities on a weekly basis. There are likely infinite reasons for that, but it sheds a rather harsh light on why only 20% of women appear to use Twitter.

It could mean that most want all of the networking under one roof for convenience, and only desire one-to-many communication if it involves people they know and trust. It could also mean that Twittering is still considered a medium for celebrities, politicians, and digital hipsters; the survey found that women who themselves blog are significantly more active across all forms of social media.

There is definitely something to be said here. Unfortunately, Facebook, being one of the most popular social media networkingwebsites on the Internet is seriously dropping the ball when it comes to professionalism. More and more companies, businesses and organizations are not only joining the network but also creating multiple fan pages, groups and ads. However, there are some serious changes that Facebook needs to undertake so that it is more accesible to the corporate world. As an SEO and Marketing specialist, I find organizing my work and promotions through Facebook more and more frustrating. – WST

By: Rachel Anderson

To be clear, I’m a big fan of Facebook, both personally and professionally. As a 20-something I’m addicted to keeping track of friends and secretly stalking new people I meet.

As a search marketer, I’m a strong supporter of (relevant) business participation as an effective tool for brand awareness and customer engagement. With that said, I’m more than a little disappointed in Facebook’s lack of basic functionality and advertiser tools.

While Facebook offers a ton of great features (demographic targeting, RSS integration, custom tabs, etc) their lack of attention to detail has left the stale taste of missed opportunity in my mouth. Why? Let me explain.

Limited Reporting: I would really love to see more comprehensive options with regards to reporting.

Reports w/custom date ranges – options are quite limited here.

Data Mining – considering the gold mine they’re sitting on, this can be improved significantly. For example, I can get a breakdown of age ranges or geographic region for my ad. In other words, I can see the overall percent of 18-24 year olds or people in California that clicked on my ad, but I can’t see how many 18-24 year olds in California clicked on my ad.

Conversion Tracking – come on people this is not 1998 and we’re in an economic downturn. Advertisers need to be able to measure ROI. Or has this feature been excluded on purpose…?

Ads Manager: unimpressive, to say the least. A more user friendly and accessible UI would be especially helpful for management purposes, and a desktop editor would be even better.

Access – as it currently stands, multiple administrators cannot access the Ad Manager. The one that sets this up is the only one that can view the reports and manage ads. This is especially frustrating if multiple people need access, or if a 3rd party takes on ad management.

Inability to Edit Existing Ads – what if I just need to make one tiny change? Facebook gives me the option to edit the ad but a new ad is created to reflect the change. So then you have both the old and new running, must pause the old, and remember to aggregate those performance stats. Unnecessary.

For further can’t miss marketing thoughts, download the Web Success Team’s latest Ten Steps to Web Success. And for a complete direct response marketing solution, discover our Solopreneur Marketing Package. It’s available for a limited time and for a select few. If you read this paragraph, I did my direct response job. Don’t forget to click the links!
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